PART A: FINDINGS

1. INTRODUCTION

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While the Internet and broadband have been cited by many as potentially important enablers of sustainable development, significant discrepancies persist that impact who can actually access and benefit from the Internet. According to recent International Telecommunication Union (ITU) estimates, for instance, more than half of the world’s population, or approximately 3.9 billion people, will still be offline by the end of 2016.[1]

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A large proportion of the unconnected population is made up of women, as access inequalities tend to affect women much more profoundly than men. The Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI), for instance, argues that gender discrepancies are not only ‘one of the most pernicious aspects of the global digital divide’ but also and disconcertingly growing wider.[2] ITU statistics indeed indicate that men are more likely to have access to the Internet in all regions of the world, with the global Internet user gender gap actually growing from 11% in 2013 to 12.2% in 2016.[3] This tendency is evident in developing countries but less so in developed countries, where access inequalities improved from 5.8% in 2013 to 2.8%. At 23%, the access gap is the largest in Africa and the smallest in the Americas (2%). In Least Developed Countries (LDCs), furthermore, only approximately one in seven people will be online by the end of 2016 –and only 31% of them will be women.[4]

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Existing gender disparities, discrimination and inequalities has a significant impact on the gender digital divide. Women’s ability to gain meaningful Internet access is influenced by factors including location, economic power, age, gender, racial or ethnic origin, social and cultural norms, and education, amongst other things. Disparity and discrimination in these areas translate into specific gender-based challenges and barriers to meaningful access. For example, gender literacy gaps – including digital literacy – results in uneven capacity amongst women to use the Internet for their needs. Connecting and enabling at least half of the next 3.9 billion unconnected people[5] will require bridging not just one digital divide, but multiple digital divides, and demands an approach that is located within economic, social, political and cultural contexts that recognizes existing inequalities. Fortunately, the need to address digital divides – particularly where women are concerned – has been widely recognized and confirmed by intergovernmental and other stakeholders in the past year.

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The United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,[6] for instance, stresses the importance of not only promoting access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) in general, but also supporting women’s empowerment and gender equality goals. Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5, for instance, affirms the need for achieving gender equality and empowering women and girls, while one of the targets of SDG 5 emphasises the importance of enabling technology, in particular ICTs, to promote the empowerment of women (target 5.b). Goal 9c, furthermore, also sets a target for universal access to ICTs by 2030.

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The A4AI points out that universal access (goal 9c) and enhancing the use of ICTs to promote the empowerment of women (goal 5b) are ‘inextricably linked’ although they might be found under different goals:[7]

¶ 7Leave a comment on paragraph 70We cannot achieve universal access without bringing women (half of the world’s population) online; likewise, women’s empowerment through ICTs will not happen without enabling women affordable access to the Internet.

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Another example of global recognition of the need to address gender digital divides is reflected in the outcome document of the high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly on the overall review of the implementation of the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), published in December 2015. It not only encouraged stakeholders to ensure ‘the full participation of women in the information society and women’s access to new technologies’, but also stressed the need for:[8]

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Besides the work and recognition of intergovernmental organizations, notable research on gender and access has also been done by organizations like the A4AI, Web Foundation, GSMA, APC, World Bank, and private sector stakeholders like Intel, Microsoft, and Google. Yet, as was pointed out at a recent workshop[9] where the BPF participated in Bangkok, Thailand, many governments have not been paying sufficient attention to gender and access issues; and within civil society the participation of the global women’s movement in this dialogue has also been limited.[10]

2. THE IMPORTANCE OF PROMOTING WOMEN’S ACCESS

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Reasons for needing to address and overcome gender digital divides or inequalities in access span from economic rationales to the need to enable access as a means for exercising and attaining fundamental human rights and enabling women’s full participation in increasingly networked knowledge societies, which has an impact on the entire socio-economic and political systems.

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The Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development (Broadband Commission), for instance, notes in its recent The State of Broadband report that the importance of promoting meaningful access extends beyond the need to promote efficiency ‘by generating greater economic, energy, governance and mobility efficiency’ to digital technologies being:[11]

¶ 13Leave a comment on paragraph 130…a crucial milestone in the building of knowledge cities by boosting urban democratic processes through greater inclusion and participation, rendering education accessible to all, empowering women and girls, and promoting cultural diversity and creativity.

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Promoting women’s access is not only important in enabling women’s development and participation in increasingly networked knowledge societies where critical services such as healthcare, government services, employment opportunities and education are delivered online, but also because of how women have been shown to use gained skills and other benefits to the benefit of broader communities. As the Broadband Commission’s Working Group on Broadband and Gender (BCWG) pointed out in its 2013 report:[12]

¶ 15Leave a comment on paragraph 150Expanding women’s access to ICT can enhance the reach of policy-makers to a far broader population base, as women are more likely to take time to inform others and reflect such knowledge in family and community planning. By the same token, increased access will also give women distinct voice in development planning and allow them to be active participants in having gender-aware policies and programmes at the local and national levels.

3. FROM ACCESS TO MEANINGFUL ACCESS

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Expanding access will only serve and support the SDGs if it is able to enable individuals or, in other words, if it can be described as meaningful – a conviction that is also echoed more generally in another of the IGF’s intersessional activities in 2016, Policy Options for Connecting and Enabling the Next Billion(s) – Phase II.[13] For instance, many women who do have access cannot be described as being able to benefit from such access due to, for instance, the slow speed and/or high cost of such connectivity (including the price of devices and data), the (in)ability to actually understand and benefit from such access, a lack of relevant content in diverse language(s), censored or restricted content related to gender and sexuality, and/or whether women feel that their actions online may be restricted because of threats that restrict their ability to fully benefit from using the Internet.[14]

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Measures that promote access therefore need to focus on ensuring access is also meaningful, or able to also empower and enable users (as is discussed in more detail in Policy Options for Connecting and Enabling the Next Billion(s) – Phase II[15]). The World Bank notes that gains will not be automatic when gender parity in ownership, access and control over digital technologies is reached – they need to be complemented by ‘analog complements’ in order that also ‘address the underlying barriers to women’s employment, voice, and agency’,[16] for instance.

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The Broadband Commission similarly takes the view that technology’ in itself cannot be the solution to sustainable development’: if policymakers overlook the so-called ‘soft components’ of ICT expansion (including, for instance, skills, education, the provision of local content, and sufficiently inclusive policies), ‘the impacts of the digital revolution will fall short and its benefits will not be fully realized’.[17]

4. TOWARDS A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF BARRIERS

4.1 A need for more data

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Technological advancements in connectivity have expanded broadband access and mobile penetration in recent years – also for women. Yet a variety of factors and barriers impact women’s ability to access and benefit from the Internet. Some barriers are more ‘obvious’ than others (e.g. affordability or a lack of available infrastructure), while others are more generic, complex, and often intertwined with cultural and normative perceptions of gender roles in a given community.[18]

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While barriers exist for both men and women in gaining access to and benefiting from the Internet, women and girls tend to not only experience barriers more profoundly than men, but also face more barriers than their male peers. As the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) points out, many barriers women experience are compacted by a variety of social norms:[19]

¶ 23Leave a comment on paragraph 230Aside from troubling inequalities in terms of access between the North and the South, there is a growing body of evidence on a notable gender divide exacerbated by factors such as level of employment, education, poverty, literacy and geographical location.

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An overview of existing research by different organisations and stakeholder groups outline several key barriers to access for women, including accessibility, affordability, social norms and gender disparities, relevance, usability and skills, and safety.

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The World Wide Web Foundation (Web Foundation), for instance, takes the view that the ‘root causes’ of the ‘digital gender divide’ in ten countries it recently surveyed (Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique, Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt, Colombia, India, Indonesia and the Philippines) are high costs, lack of know-how, a scarcity of content that is relevant and empowering to women, and barriers to women speaking freely and privately online.[20]

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GSMA’s research, which relates primarily to mobiles, identified four broad categories of barriers, namely cost, a lack of perceived value, technical literacy, and cultural issues. In a 2015 report, GSMA expanded and altered its categories based on the input from both men and women in countries it studied, including barriers related to device and data cost; network quality and coverage; security and harassment; operator/ agent trust; and technical literacy and confidence.[21]

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While these organizations and other stakeholders stress the importance of gaining a better understanding of barriers and local contexts (e.g. GSMA, 2015[22]), data pertaining to such barriers and factors, as well as how these barriers and factors are not only entwined but also impact digital divides, appears to be more limited. GSMA, for instance, identifies the lack of gender-disaggregated data and focus on women, especially where mobile Internet usage is concerned, as a systemic barrier to access;[23] while Web Foundation stresses that:[24]

¶ 28Leave a comment on paragraph 280A better evidence base for understanding how gender and poverty affect ICR use is badly needed to guide efforts to achieve the SDG targets.

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At a recent workshop where the BPF participated, it was noted that much of the research pertaining to women and access tends to focus on affordability and availability, and often the interplay between barriers as well as underlying social and cultural barriers are neglected. Similarly, the lack of available data at country level to understand barriers and use of particularly women, along with inconsistencies where indicators, targets and methodologies are concerned, were also pointed out as a significant problem.[25]

4.2 The IGF BPF 2016: helping to fill the gaps

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To help address the need for a better and more holistic understanding of factors or barriers to women’s meaningful access, the BPF community focused its work in 2016 on barriers that are important to local communities in accessing and benefiting from the Internet, as well as to surface initiatives that have begun to address some of them as potential lessons learnt or best practices.

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The work also builds on the BPF Gender’s recommendations in 2015, in which it noted that the issue of women’s unequal access to the Internet must be addressed with approaches that are located within economic, social, political and cultural contexts:[26]

¶ 34Leave a comment on paragraph 340It is both short-sighted and inadequate to respond to this issue by looking at infrastructure or economic issues without examining the interplay of various other factors that act as pre-conditions as well as influencing factors to the extent that women and girls are able to access and use the Internet freely, safely and equally in the full exercise of their rights.

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The BPF community endeavoured to gather more information on barriers through discussions in online and on-site meetings at various national and regional IGF initiatives’ events in different parts of the world, and conducting a survey.[27] While the diversity of survey respondents is described in more detail in Part B, it should be noted that a mixture of individuals and organizations from different stakeholder groups participated in the survey; thereby providing rich data on specific contexts and the ways in which barriers interact.

4.3 The significance of context

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While findings on these barriers are discussed in detail below, it should first be noted that a remark[28] that was common among the survey responses included the need to take due cognisance of contextual differences like how barriers differ from region to region (including different countries, rural versus urban contexts, etc.) as well as the need to also differentiate between the barriers women of different ages face.

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In its submission to the BPF, the Internet Society APAC Bureau points out that in the Asia Pacific region, for instance, barriers are especially acute in communities and rural areas where both institutional approaches and cultural attitudes about women’s roles in societies (addressed in Section 5.2 below) lead to fewer opportunities for employment, education and mobility; thereby impacting women’s chances to access and benefit from the Internet. At a workshop at APrIGF in Macau, furthermore, the need for localised, context-based solutions that can help women to go online regardless of the device or network they use, was also stressed.

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The comments respondents submitted pertaining to the importance of context also echo other research. The Web Foundation, for instance, has pointed out that age is an important factor in women’s ability to benefit from access. In the countries it studied, over 60% of urban women and men between the ages of 18 and 29 years of age were online, compared to only 25% of above 40 years of age.[29] In its recent World Development Report: Digital Dividends, the World Bank similarly points out the significance of whether women have small children and thus the time to engage in online activities,[30] for instance. A4AI, furthermore, argues that there is ‘an urban-rural divide related to the gender gap in Internet use’.[31]

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A group of BPF participants from Latin America also submitted a useful background contribution,[32]Enabling access to empower young women and build a feminist Internet Governance (see Part B for more information about this submission) in which it stresses the importance of taking due cognisance of contextual factors. It recommends that for a ‘more equal Internet’ where women have equal access, ‘it is very important to identify all layers of access – youth, mothers, elderly women, rural and traditional communities’, and to make sure that access is tailored to each one of them.

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The group argues that while women in younger generations do tend to have more access to the Internet, the gender gap in access is still there, as only seven girls are online for every ten in the age group of 18 to 29 years of age. It notes that ‘the Internet presents a dichotomy based on gender and age and to believe that the assumption that young people are born “connected to the Internet” is, as a matter of fact, a fallacy’. The group notes that some of the causes of this gap where young women are concerned include barriers pertaining to a lack of education, fear, culture, affordability, and policies.

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Where possible, factors pertaining to the importance of age, location, and the relevance of context in general are also pointed out in the text on barriers below.

5. BARRIERS TO MEANINGFUL ACCESS

5.1 Introduction

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Guided by existing research and on BPF participants’ inputs regarding what barriers they perceive to be important, a list of barriers was compiled in the survey:

capacity and skills (e.g. literacy gap in reading, lacking in skills and confidence to access the internet or explore technology, etc.);

the availability of relevant content (e.g. language issues, lack of content that speaks to women’s contexts, gender-related content is censored/restricted);

women’s participation in decision-making roles pertaining to the Internet and/or in the technology sector (e.g. when women are not able to pursue careers in science and technology, when their participation in relevant policymaking fora is restricted);

the availability of relevant policies (e.g. policies with a gender focus and/or that address women’s ability to access and benefit from the Internet); and/or

other barriers.

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The effect of culture and norms as a barrier preventing women from accessing and benefitting from the Internet was most frequently selected by the BPF’s survey respondents (71% of participants selected it as a barrier). Other important barriers were affordability (67%), women’s ability to participate in decision-making roles pertaining to the Internet and technology sector (65.3%), lack of capacity and relevant skills necessary to access and benefit from the Internet (60%), and the availability of relevant policies (59%). The availability of relevant infrastructure was also important (48% of participants selected it as a barrier); as was the availability of relevant content and applications (41%).[33]

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It should be noted that these factors or barriers are not mutually exclusive, and often relate and impact on another – as is reflected by the survey results and the sections below. Even when connectivity is available and affordable, for instance, women will not necessarily adopt and use (or benefit from) the Internet.[34] The survey helped the BPF to gather more input on how barriers relate to each other and what, more particularly, respondents believe to be the specific challenges pertaining to each barrier – as is discussed in more detail below.

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Further, it is notable that while most of the comments received from survey respondents related to the barriers listed above, another barrier frequently raised relates to threats pertaining to online abuse and gender-based violence, as well as (‘offline’) threats pertaining to the use of ICTs (a barrier discussed in detail in the BPF’s work in 2015, which focused on online abuse and gender-based violence[35]). This is discussed in a separate section below.

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In the next section the barriers identified by BPF participants are described in more detail in order of which barriers were most frequently rated as significant by survey respondents. Where relevant, the comments received from survey respondents are summarised with reference to existing research by different stakeholders. Following the description for each barrier, initiatives that aim to address such barrier are also listed.

5.2 The significance of culture and norms

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Culture and norms, which are often underlying or ‘hidden’ in communities,[36] act as a significant barrier that affects women in gaining access to and benefiting from connectivity. The effects of culture and norms, along with the attitudes and stereotypes that accompany it, was most frequently cited as a barrier to access by the BPF’s survey participants (71% of participants selected it as a barrier to meaningful access for women).

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This is also, importantly, one of the areas of barriers where further research has been called for. At a recent workshop[37] in which the BPF participated, for instance, it was noted that evidence is needed for the ways in which access may be restricted in some areas (including phone bans or village moral policing; how the Internet may be used to shape and influence, or change, norms; and the measures that should be used to get and keep women online. In addition, the participants noted, a gender analysis of algorithmic curation is also needed to determine the extent to which content curation affects diversity and reflects cultures and norms.

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GSMA explains that women tend to face ‘a variety of discriminatory practices, both conscious and unconscious, that create preferential treatment for men and boys’. Such social norms, it notes, include ‘the everyday behaviour, or expected behaviour, of a specific group across countries, and also within countries, such as between rural and urban areas and across different ages and ethnic groups’; influencing a woman’s ‘access to education and income in a society’.[38] The Web Foundation, furthermore, also notes in a recent report that ‘how people use the Internet, once they are connected, is also strongly influenced by offline inequalities’.[39] The BCWG has similarly pointed out that:[40]

¶ 52Leave a comment on paragraph 520Digital gender gaps reflect gender inequalities throughout societies and economies, and a range of socio-economic and political factors affect gender divides. It is widely and consistently established that women experience discrimination around the world in fields such as employment, income, health and education.

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Survey respondents also note in the open-ended question about barriers that gender inequality ‘is pervasive at the local, national, international and global levels’ (e.g. Carolina Lasen, Council of Europe).

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Thais Stein (Brazil) explains in her survey response that ‘offline’ barriers such as financial dependence and a patriarchal society that restricts women’s ability to study, work, and participate in public spaces, are echoed online. A 23-year-old woman from Brazil similarly points out in a background contribution:[41]

¶ 58Leave a comment on paragraph 580I see gender as an all-encompassing and never-ending performance. We are embedded in it from the moment we wake up till the last blink before sleep. We may dress our “work identity”, our “friend identity”, our “mother/daughter” identity, but we are always constantly being these identities. We perform and are women. Gender is part of our lives, we can deny it and even run from it, but it is part of how social relations have been structured. This is not different when we connect ourselves.

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Many survey respondents argue that technology is still perceived ‘a male thing’ that is unsuitable for women (e.g. Francesca Arrocha, Panamá; Shreedeep Rayamaji, Nepal; Rebecca Ryakitimbo, Tanzania; Patience, Democratic Republic of Congo; Denise Viola, Brazil; Katambi Joan, Uganda). As Sylvia Musalagani (Kenya) points out, where women do manage to break through barriers and use the Internet, they ‘have to fight a lot of battles’ because of perceptions that science and technology ‘is not womanly enough’. Denise Viola (Brazil) similarly argues that women are discouraged from learning technological skills ‘not because they are not capable’, but because such skills are ‘very much associated with the male universe’ (addressed in more detail in Section 4.5 below). As Francesca Arrocha (Panamá) explains in her survey response:

¶ 60Leave a comment on paragraph 600As I grew up, I had this idea that being techie was a guy’s thing, so now I’m not sure if not being interested enough on classes as physics or chemistry was an election or a cultural imposition.

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Survey respondents from Africa were particularly vocal in the open-ended survey question about the significance of gender roles. Brahim Mahamat Zina (Chad), for instance, points out that culture and norms constitute ‘big barriers’ in Chad and the rest of Africa. Yolanda Mlonzi (South Africa) notes that gender roles still constitute one of the primary reasons for the ‘gender digital divide’, because:

¶ 62Leave a comment on paragraph 620…many females are subjected to the social construct of what a female should do, how they should act and carry themselves. Many a times, one would find that cellphones, computers and the internet at home are primarily used by men.

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The Internet Society APAC Bureau also notes that in most low-income households in Asia Pacific, households tend to only have one mobile device (if any) and male family members have preferential access. Helani Galpaya from LIRNEasia (India) similarly notes that research the organization recently did with the GSMA shows that women are 29% less likely to own a smartphone than men in Myanmar due to a combination of reasons, including traditional gender roles and cost. Such roles encourage men to leave the home to earn money for the family, while women are expected to stay at home to run the household and take care of the family. As the report explains:[42]

¶ 64Leave a comment on paragraph 640Men have a more prominent role in the household based on the religious belief that only men can become a Buddha, but many of the women interviewed in the qualitative research took this for granted and did not consider it ‘discrimination’.

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In its submission to the BPF, the Internet Society APAC Bureau points out that the impact of perceived gender roles is, among other things, that women have less confidence in ICT use (addressed in more detail in Section 4.5 below), and leads to women experiencing ‘discomfort or feeling unwelcome’ when they have to interact with men who sell SIM cards or data, or when they try to gain access at public access facilities.

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Sylvia Musalagani (Kenya) points out that culture and norms is a significant barrier in Kenya and the East African region in general; often causing a chilling effect where women’s ability to express themselves online is concerned:

¶ 68Leave a comment on paragraph 680Women are expected to act, dress, communicate in a certain way which is often determined by society, religion, culture among other things. This has caused a lot of women to sensor their expression online to the extent that some prefer not to get online at all.

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An anonymous respondent from France argues that while barriers pertaining to cost and literacy are important, a ‘deeper issue’ persists in that women and girls also need to be empowered to meaningfully participate in technology, including by developing and creating content and applications.

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Because content relevant to women is often rare online, many women fail to see the value to Internet access. Júlia Ribeiro (Brazil) notes that while other barriers to access, like affordability and skills, may perceivably be overcome, a more profound barrier is an underlying one related to what she calls a ‘lack of digital culture, along with socioeconomic role we impose to people that fit in social standards’. This, she argues, causes women to believe ‘this digital world doesn’t belong to them’. This point is echoed in the submission from some young Latin American women of the Youth Observatory, which points out:[43]

¶ 72Leave a comment on paragraph 720…girls tend to be seen as human beings who are not able to survive in an online world, so it is preferable to keep them entertained on “girly” activities at home. A patriarchal view of the Internet is one that limits our ability to have equal access due to structured social constraint. This further reinforces our belief that despite access, we need to think about what kind of access do we wish. Access should come along with education, awareness and a gender-sensitive perspective on how to use/navigate it.

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Various survey respondents also note the ways in which underlying cultural norms – particularly relating to women’s (often unpaid) responsibilities at home and raise children – impact their ability to access and benefit from Internet access.

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Ingrid Brudvig (South Africa) from the World Wide Web Foundation notes that women also tend to spend a ‘disproportionate amount of time on unpaid care activities compared to men’ and that ‘the decision to spend time online presents a real opportunity cost’ (affected by barriers related to relevance, addressed below). Khouloud Baghouri (Tunisia) for instance points out that most people in her Tunisian community believe that when women do have Internet access, they will neglect their household chores ‘or her daily mother/daughter activities’. Some respondents also note that young women sometimes have to leave school to take care of their children (Sofia Hammoe, Argentina; Júlia Ribeiro, Brazil) (the barriers young women specifically face are discussed in Section 5 below).

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Some respondents furthermore note that age may be a significant factor in the capacity of women and men to experiment and develop skills around technology (Denise Viola, Brazil). One anonymous respondent from France, for instance, notes that she has noticed ‘the [gender] gap in the generation before’ her. Her father is more proficient online, while her mother, who was a stay-at-home mother, took much longer to use the Internet and ‘she’s still not familiar with it’. Another anonymous respondent from Brazil notes:

¶ 80Leave a comment on paragraph 800My mother does not usually access internet because she has no confidence to access the internet, nor to explore technologies. She is always afraid of make something wrong using technologies and expose our family. She doesn’t have a notebook, nor a computer, so she has to wait my father stop using his notebook and expect that my brother does not want to use his computer, because the main task to her is to take care of our house.

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Gaps pertaining to customs, norms and stereotypes are not only ‘complex and multi-dimensional’, but they also reflect broader social and cultural divides[44] and are thus particularly difficult to address. Yet, as the BCWG pointed out, ‘if women fail to go online, they may never master technology, and miss out on acquiring vital ICT skills which are helpful in everyday life, and increasingly essential in the modern digital economy.’[45]

5.3 Threats as a barrier

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While threats enabled by ICT use and threats pertaining to online abuse and violence were not explicitly listed in the survey as a separate barrier, many survey respondents highlighted it as a significant other barrier in the open-ended question pertaining to barriers. It was similarly noted as the third most important barrier to mobile phone ownership and usage and a key concern for women by the GSMA,[47] for instance, and highlighted as a ‘worrying new development’ by the BCWG in 2013.[48]

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In its background contribution to the BPF, a group of young women from Latin America also note that as young women, there is a concern that the more their lives depend on the Internet and/or interconnected systems, the more important freedom and security online will become. They point out that practices like sexting and digital violence have become ‘a recurring’ and even ‘normalized’ practice online; along with sharing photographs and videos of women without authorization, and breaching women’s privacy. The group recommends:[49]

¶ 87Leave a comment on paragraph 870If we guarantee access, freedom and security for women on the Internet, we will create an Internet with less gaps and, furthermore, we will be able to create equal opportunities and have empowered women. Young women from 2016 will soon be connected adults, and we want to have the tools to access, build and navigate in the same circumstances and conditions.

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BPF survey respondents also point out that safety and harassment fears, including fears of physical violence, harassment, abuse and/or fraud, are significant barriers that inhibit women from benefitting from or even wanting to access the Internet. In a contribution to the BPF’s mailing list, for instance, the Asia Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum (APrIGF) notes:

¶ 89Leave a comment on paragraph 890Gender-based violence can, among other things, limit women’s ability to take advantage of the opportunities that ICTs provide for the full realisation of women’s human rights, act as a barrier to access that can exacerbate the gender digital gap, violate women’s human rights, and reproduce gender stereotypes and discrimination.

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These risks are not just experienced in physical environments but also deters women’s use of online platforms. Jacqueline Treiber (USA) notes that the Internet is ‘not always a safe space for women to learn or exercise free-thought without the threat of harassment’. Júlia Ribeiro (Brazil) argues in her survey response that there is sexism and misogyny in every ‘corner’ of the Internet; reinforcing cultural and normative barriers that tend to censor female expression.

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Angélica Contreras (Mexico) notes that digital violence is still not adequately addressed in policies and measures, while an anonymous respondent from Brazil similarly points out that there are few platforms that are empowering to women without inviting ‘trolls and critique’, and that relevant policies that can help women to ‘defend themselves from general hate speech, body-shaming attitudes and online violence against women are still necessary’.

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Survey respondents furthermore point out that women in rural areas may find the Internet especially difficult to access, particularly in areas where access is only available outside the home or in unsafe locations, and/or where social or cultural norms and safety concerns (addressed above) may restrict women’s freedom of movement. Ingrid Brudvig notes that the Web Foundation’s Women’s Rights Online research[50] has found that cultural norms and online safety and privacy are ‘intricately linked’:

¶ 93Leave a comment on paragraph 930Owning a smartphone or having access to safe, “respectable” public access facilities may be critical enablers for women in situations where their mobility is culturally constrained.

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The importance of ensuring that public access facilities (e.g. libraries or other areas enabling women to access the Internet in rural areas or when they cannot afford their own data and/or devices) was also noted during a webinar session hosted by the BPF at APrIGF. The need to ensure that such facilities have sufficient numbers of women staff was stressed; along with the need to use such facilities to also overcome other barriers like expanding digital literacy skills.

5.4 Relative affordability and the cost of devices and broadband

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Affordability relates to not only the cost of devices and data, but also whether or not someone has disposable income and financial resources to spend getting connected. This was also pointed out as a significant barrier by 67% of the survey respondents. Cost featured as a significant barrier in GSMA (which found it to be ‘the greatest barrier overall’ for women to own and use a mobile[1]) and Web Foundation research (which found it to be the second most important concern for women who are not connected among its sample[2]). A4AI similarly notes that the ‘digital divide is a poverty and gender divide’ and that women are ‘among those hardest hit by the high cost to connect’.[3]

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Survey respondents and the group of young Latin American women of the Youth Observatory[4] point out that women tend to have fewer employment opportunities, lower incomes and less access to financial resources than men; making it more difficult for them to acquire devices with which to access the Internet, to afford data packages, or to pay for public access (c.f. Thai Stein, Brazil; Andressa Pasqualini, Brazil). Costs also tend to affect female-headed, single-parent households more profoundly (Ingrid Brudvig, South Africa). As the BCWG points out:[5]

¶ 100Leave a comment on paragraph 1000Affordability, gaps in wages and therefore gaps in purchasing power are major determinants of the different abilities of men and women to access ICTs.

¶ 101Leave a comment on paragraph 1010
Various survey respondents confirm that costs related to getting online, including for a device, data plan and electricity, are prohibitive for many (e.g. survey respondents from Indonesia, Nepal, Uganda, Ghana). As Inimfon Etuk from She Forum Africa (Nigeria) notes in her survey response:

¶ 102Leave a comment on paragraph 1020Where there is internet availability, affordability becomes a hindrance largely because women earn less and or have reduced access to employment opportunities which would otherwise have empowered them financially to be able to afford. Where they can afford, they still have to prioritize over more pressing sustainability needs like food and shelter especially for their children.

¶ 103Leave a comment on paragraph 1030
High costs are not only preventing women from accessing the Internet, however, but also limiting their future capacity for development. As the Web Foundation’s Ingrid Brudvig notes in her survey response, ‘high cost is keeping women offline and limiting digital opportunities’. She explains:

¶ 104Leave a comment on paragraph 1040Making broadband cheaper is not only the best way to get more women connected, but also a prerequisite to enable them to go online and explore longer and more frequently, to fully unlock digital opportunities. Women who are able to go online daily are nearly three times more likely than infrequent users to report that the Internet has helped them to increase their income.

5.5 Women’s ability to participate in relevant decision-making roles

¶ 108Leave a comment on paragraph 1080
A large proportion (65.3%) of the BPF’s survey respondents felt that women’s (in)ability to participate in decision-making roles pertaining to the Internet and technology sector is a significant barrier to meaningful access.

¶ 109Leave a comment on paragraph 1090
Cultural barriers and norms, including related socioeconomic factors and perceptions about women’s place and role in society (discussed in Section 4.3 above), tend to prevent women from meaningfully participating in the ICT sector – not only in gaining relevant skills and capacities (discussed in Section 4.7 below), but also in managing to access better-paid jobs and become decision-makers in the ICT and other sectors.

¶ 112Leave a comment on paragraph 1120
Organizations like APC note that while it is generally assumed technology is gender-neutral, women are ‘often excluded from the development and implementation of technology because of cultural biases’. This includes not only the development of actual platforms and whose interests and needs technology caters for, but also the ways in which women’s interests and priorities are addressed through technology – for example in the development of safety tools, applications and devices[7] (see Section 4.4 above).

¶ 113Leave a comment on paragraph 1130
An anonymous survey respondent from Paloma explains that the Internet has ‘always been conceived as male-dominant fields’, while women are encouraged to focus on ‘more feminine things’. As a result, the respondent points out, women lack Internet-related skills, fail to gain strong careers, there are fewer female engineers, and less women capable of engaging in decision-making pertaining to the Internet. The Web Foundation similarly found that in the populations they studied, approximately three in ten men agreed that ‘the Internet should be a male-controlled domain’, while about two in ten women agreed with the sentiment[8] (also see Section 4.3 above).

¶ 114Leave a comment on paragraph 1140
Even when women do manage to gain access to these fields, they face further difficulties. Paula Perez (Argentina) writes in her survey response that ‘being a woman in the telecom area is quite difficult’ even for women who do have the requisite technical skills. Rebecca Ryakitimbo (Tanzania) argues in her survey response that when women manage to participate in STEM fields, furthermore, they ‘are not given that much responsibility’ as cultural norms still lead to a perception that STEM is ‘a man’s world’.

¶ 115Leave a comment on paragraph 1150
The BCWG similarly notes that gaps in access to ICTs are also associated with ‘gaps in the advanced ICT skills necessary to access better-paid jobs’.[9] It points out that women are not only under-represented in ICT employment, but hold fewer positions in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields, which tend to be better paid.[10] The World Bank argues that women’s lack of participation in STEM fields tend to be ‘a product of early gender-based biases in formal and informal education’ (addressed in the next barrier).[11] In the Broadband Commission’s more recent The State of Broadband report, it also points out that although it ‘is vital that women and girls are involved both as consumers and makers of technology’, recent research show that the gap between men and women participating in STEM careers in European countries is, in fact, widening:[12]

¶ 116Leave a comment on paragraph 1160Significant falls in the proportion of women participating in ICT jobs (as one specific example of the STEM domain) are observed throughout nearly all countries in Central Europe reaching to 10 percentage points, with somewhat smaller falls of 3-5 percentage points in Austria, Denmark, France, UK & Ireland…

¶ 117Leave a comment on paragraph 1170
Gender disparities pertaining to women’s ability to participate in decision-making roles not only affect developing countries. Jennifer Chung from DotAsia Organisation, for instance, notes in her survey response that while the USA is a ‘one of the leading technologically advanced countries’, more can be done to enhance gender parity; especially in the technology sector.

¶ 119Leave a comment on paragraph 1190
APC points out that this gender gap in STEM leads to women also being ‘seriously under-represented in the governance and development of the digital world’ in that STEM research and development, it notes, ‘tends to ignore the needs and concerns of women and girls’.[13] A BPF survey respondent from the Dominican Republic, Marianny Torres, similarly points out that most of the organizations that take decisions relevant to the Internet and its governance are managed by men.

¶ 120Leave a comment on paragraph 1200
A group of Latin American women of the Youth Observatory similarly point out that there is a need to ensure that young women’s voices are better heard in Internet governance decision-making forums, noting that platforms like the IGF offer places for young women ‘to take part and think about the Internet (and the governance mechanisms involved) we want to see in the future’.[14]

¶ 121Leave a comment on paragraph 1210
APC similarly argues that women’s rights organisations, for instance, need to invest in spaces where ‘decisions about access and infrastructure are made’.[15] At a recent workshop in Bangkok, Thailand, where the BPF participated, it was noted that quota systems do help in some countries to increase the number of women in leadership roles; but that training on leadership is equally important, especially at local levels.[16]

5.6 The need for relevant capacities and digital literacy skills

¶ 126Leave a comment on paragraph 1260
The importance of capacity and skills, as is also reflected in levels of education, has been stressed by various organizations and was also affirmed by the BPF’s survey respondents. The need to build and develop relevant capacities and skills is also closed linked to the previously mentioned barrier of women’s ability to participate in decision-making roles in the ICT sector. 60% of the BPF’s survey respondents note that a lack of capacity and relevant skills is a barrier to women’s Internet access. As the Broadband Commission points out:[18]

¶ 127Leave a comment on paragraph 1270To achieve equality and combat these restraints, it is vital to find ways to empower girls and women to participate in designing, building and leading our shared digital future, including awareness raising and professional training.

¶ 128Leave a comment on paragraph 1280
Women tend to have fewer educational opportunities and lower literacy levels compared to men (c.f. Yolanda Mlonzi, South Africa; anonymous respondent, Guatemala; Sellina Khumbo Kapondera, Malawi). As Jacqueline Treiber (USA) notes in her survey response, ‘there is a systemic barrier to women’s education in certain regions in the world.’ Inimfon Etuk (Nigeria) similarly points out that ‘low rates of enrolment into formal education reduces opportunities for women to access training and skills that would build and grow their interest and usage of the internet’.

¶ 129Leave a comment on paragraph 1290
Erica Penfold and Dhanaraj Thakur from A4AI point out in their joint survey response that affordability (addressed above) and a lack of know-how or technical literacy are two major barriers to meaningful access. Survey respondents similarly lament low levels of ICT skills in countries like Kenya, Tunisa and Myanmar, for instance (c.f. Anissa Bhar, Tunisia; anonymous respondent, Kenya; Helani Galpaya, India). On the other hand, during a workshop in which the BPF participated, it was also pointed out that capacity building in digital skills should not be based on gender assumptions about what women should learn and what content women need.[19]

¶ 130Leave a comment on paragraph 1300
A lack of digital literacy also extends to women having the confidence to know how to participate online without exposing themselves or their families to harm or risks (as is addressed in more detail in Section 4.4 above). As a respondent from Palestine notes,

¶ 131Leave a comment on paragraph 1310When parents lack the technical skills, they are afraid of their kids to be exposed to pornography, hence they don’t provide access to the internet on their own homes.

¶ 132Leave a comment on paragraph 1320
Various survey participants also point out that the lack of capacity and skills extends from inequalities in respect of women’s access to education and basic literacy skills, to whether they have the skills and confidence to use even basic technologies, to the extent to which women have the skills and confidence to participate in the technology sector and in STEM careers (as discussed in the preceding section).

¶ 133Leave a comment on paragraph 1330
Other studies also suggest that women with low literacy levels and educational disadvantages often lack, or believe they lack, the digital skills and confidence needed to use the Internet or other technologies – thereby not only limiting access, but also limiting the extent to which women do have access can benefit from such access. GSMA research, for instance, indicates that women who do have access tend to find themselves limited to ‘application islands’; finding it difficult to expand their usage beyond a few applications with which they are already familiar.[20]

¶ 134Leave a comment on paragraph 1340
Gender inequalities in access to education in general and in digital literacy skills more specifically also reflect in women’s ability or willingness to participate in STEM and other ICT-related careers (also discussed above). As the BCWG argues, ICT skills are not just needed in the ICT sector, but are increasingly important for finding jobs (today often solely advertised online) and to ensure future competitiveness. By 2015, for instance, 90% of formal employment across all sectors will require technology skills.[21]

¶ 135Leave a comment on paragraph 1350
In addition to the need for new skills and finding employment, the digitization of government services poses difficulties when governments also shut down or reduce physical access to such services, depriving those who cannot access services online from basic services. In addition, as was noted during a workshop at which the BPF participated, clear instructions or training on how to use such online services are often lacking. Participants at this workshop stressed the need for creating a physical space (outside home environments) where women can explore and learn from each other about the Internet and how to access such services.[22]

¶ 136Leave a comment on paragraph 1360
Yet the Internet does have the potential of offering women more opportunities for accessing work and other opportunities. As a 24-year-old contributor from Peru notes:[23]

¶ 137Leave a comment on paragraph 1370One of the best experiences I had in my career came from Internet. I think not everybody can understand how social media can create opportunities. The girls of my country see social media just as a tool to share their life, but I think there it is much more. My top story started in Twitter. A foreign producer asked, in Twitter, if someone from my country follows his account, I saw the tweet and instantly replied “me!” Suddenly, the producer wrote me back offering work and an online free course of eleven weeks, and obviously I accepted. I can say that on those weeks I learned more than on my courses at the university. I hope, one day, more women can realized what Internet can offer us and start taking advantages of being online.

5.7 The availability of relevant policies to promote women’s access

¶ 141Leave a comment on paragraph 1410
The availability of relevant policies (e.g. policies with a gender focus and/or that address women’s ability to access and benefit from the Internet), was noted as a barrier to access for women by 59% of the BPF’s survey respondents. It was also pointed out as a challenge by the group of young Latin American women in their submission to the BPF, which argues for more gender-inclusive policies in all sectors to enable young women and girls’ empowerment:[25]

¶ 142Leave a comment on paragraph 1420We believe that access to Internet can change the life of these girls…Notwithstanding, these beliefs must be accompanied by gender-sensitive policies both at the national, regional and international level. Otherwise, the absence of a harmonization between education, awareness, governance, capacity building and policy-making, will only contribute to the further stalling, and/or small pace of progress in building a safe, equal, inclusive, open and accessible Internet for young women and girls – specially in developing countries.

¶ 144Leave a comment on paragraph 1440The local government in my country has no public policies geared towards women inclusion. In fact, it firstly released an all-male ministry and ended local police stations specialized in women’s issues. The lack of public policies for women impacts the gender digital divide as it sets a standard upon which to follow.

¶ 145Leave a comment on paragraph 1450
In addition to missing gender dimensions in policies, targets to track progress are equally important. As the Web Foundation points out, only 64 countries currently submit gender-disaggregated data on Internet use.[26] A4AI notes that to achieve gender quality in digital adoption, skills and empowerment, governments must ‘set concrete targets’ and collect gender-disaggregated data to monitor progress.[27] The BCWG similarly points out that there is a lack of nationally representative sex-disaggregated data ICT data in many countries and different measurement methodologies of gender equality in access to ICTs furthermore exist; not only giving different results, but also potentially clouding conclusions that can be drawn for evidence-based policymaking.[28]

¶ 146Leave a comment on paragraph 1460
The BCWG notes that not only are gender concerns largely absent from ICT policies, but ICTs are also largely absent from gender policies[29] and, therefore, policies neglect the potential role of ICTs and access as ‘key enablers to expand the reach’ of policies to accelerate progress.[30] The Web Foundation similarly points out that women’s inability to access and benefit from the Internet is ‘primarily due to policy failure’; with very few National Broadband Plans or other policies being designed to specifically overcome gender inequalities in access,[31] for instance.

¶ 147Leave a comment on paragraph 1470
Where online abuse and gender-based violence is concerned, for instance, definitions of harm in many countries still do not extend to harm caused by online abuse or violence (c.f. BPF Online Abuse and Gender-Based Violence[32]). An anonymous respondent from Brazil, for instance, notes that policies that help to capacitate women on defending themselves from online abuse and violence are still necessary. Sylvia Musalagani (Kenya) also notes in her survey response that in Kenya and East Africa in general,

¶ 148Leave a comment on paragraph 1480Policies in the region to not favour gender inclusion on the internet, they do not address barriers faced by women in gaining access to the internet and how they to take advantage of this resource for empowerment.

¶ 149Leave a comment on paragraph 1490
One of the BCWG’s recommendations in 2013 was for policymakers to introduce ‘strong gender perspectives into ICT policies, to devise strategies with clear goals, and to put in place measurement systems and practices to ensure gender equality is achieved’.[33] In national broadband plans, for instance, such policies should cover actions to increase women’s ICT skills; to provide digital inclusion for women; to promote female empowerment through ICTs and access; and to promote women’s roles in decision-making through ICT use.[34]

5.8 The availability of relevant infrastructure

¶ 153Leave a comment on paragraph 1530
Both women and men’s access to the Internet or broadband services is naturally limited by poor network coverage, especially in rural areas in developing countries. For women, a lack of connectivity may be further compounded by other barriers addressed elsewhere in this section, like the availability of safe public access facilities (addressed below) the affordability of data plans and devices, and/or cultural perceptions. Other supplementary challenges that impact access include potential difficulties women may face in obtaining identity documents needed to purchase data or devices; and the availability of reliable electricity needed to charge devices.[36]

¶ 154Leave a comment on paragraph 1540
In the BPF’s survey, 48% of respondents noted that the availability of relevant infrastructure is a barrier to women’s meaningful access. Web Foundation research, similarly, found the availability or quality of connection, along with electricity to charge devices, to be mentioned less often as a barrier (it was the fourth most important barrier for both women and men who are already online). The Web Foundation argues that the relevant importance attached to available infrastructure might be ‘that the obstacles posed by know-how, cost, time and relevance are perceived as so overwhelming that smaller details such as signal coverage or electricity supply might appear to be moot points’.[37]

¶ 155Leave a comment on paragraph 1550
Various BPF survey respondents also note the importance of urban or rural contexts to the availability of relevant infrastructure. Anissa Bhar (Tunisia), for instance, points out that in Tunisia, women in cities have ‘equal opportunities to use and access’ the Internet, whilst in rural areas access is more limited. Nikole Yanez (Costa Rica) also notes that women in rural areas, like indigenous women, find access difficult and expensive. Shreedeep Rayamajhi (Nepal) points out that in Nepal, where the infrastructure for broadband access is available, the quality is often ‘very bad’ and ‘prices very expensive’. As a 24-year-old woman from Peru notes in a contribution:[38]

¶ 156Leave a comment on paragraph 1560I am a doctor and I work in a small town in the Andes, where people do not have access to Internet and most of them speak, besides Spanish, Quechua which is a native language. The only access I can get is in the health center, where the government has placed a satellite antenna, and therefore the connection is not good. People here know barely about Internet, and I feel sad about it. If someone has an idea about Internet is because they have been on the city to study or to sell corn and potatoes. Usually most of the people that travel to the city are men, so the girls stay at home, that helps to keep the gap in digital knowledge between girls and boys. I think that if we connect this small town to the world through Internet, these girls can empower themselves and share how beautiful is their hometown and the varieties of potatoes and corn they have. Internet can change the life of these girls, who maybe would never have the chance to go out of their town.

5.9 The availability of relevant content and applications

¶ 160Leave a comment on paragraph 1600
Compared to the other barriers, fewer of the BPF’s survey respondents (41%) recognised the availability of relevant content and applications as an important barrier to women’s access. This finding may reflect the notion that respondents who are online already (and thus able to participate in the survey, for instance) are to some extent aware of where to find relevant and how to understand content and perhaps less aware of why certain groups may believe the Internet to be less relevant to them.

¶ 161Leave a comment on paragraph 1610
Content, applications and products are rarely designed with women’s needs and preferences in mind – also because there are fewer women working in technology fields (addressed above). Many devices are acquired with pre-installed applications and services, and restricted bandwidth tends to limit the services users can actually use, along with the skills to use such services (addressed in Section 4.7 above). As was noted during a workshop in Bangkok, Thailand, where the BPF participated:[40]

¶ 162Leave a comment on paragraph 1620The value of the content and apps is linked to the speed of access. For example, if access to Facebook is fast but the rest of the Internet is slow, then the value of Facebook is higher.

¶ 163Leave a comment on paragraph 1630
In the substantive contribution from young Latin American women of the Youth Observatory, the link between skills and the ability to locate relevant content is also illustrated:[41]

¶ 164Leave a comment on paragraph 1640If the girls are not educated, they won’t beable to navigate the Web even in their own language. And, in remote regions where there are low education and literacy levels, a girl will only experience a small part of Internet because most of the content online is in English – which is still a barrier for some developing countries.

¶ 165Leave a comment on paragraph 1650
Survey respondents furthermore point out that where content is available, it often tends to reinforce existing gender stereotypes. Survey respondents’ observations in this regard are similar to the findings GSMA and LIRNEasia, which pointed out that not only are negative perceptions of the Internet particularly common among those with limited experience and knowledge of it, but many men and women have ‘a limited understanding of what the ‘internet’ is, and therefore do not see why it is relevant to them’.[42]

¶ 166Leave a comment on paragraph 1660
One anonymous BPF respondent from Brazil notes that content that portray and encourage women’s empowerment is limited, while ‘the majority of content directed towards women is regarding maternity, cooking and beauty issues’. Another anonymous respondent from Indonesia similarly notes that while there may be online content in Indonesian, content still displays a ‘gender bias’ and serves to ‘perpetuate’ gender stereotypes and gender-based violence, as displayed in ‘articles about virginity test for female students, under-age marriage, etc.’

¶ 167Leave a comment on paragraph 1670
Many women similarly remain unaware of the potential value which online content and services could contribute to their lives and livelihoods; and are therefore often uninterested in getting online (Paola Perez, Venezuela; Daniela Viteri, Equador) (also discussed in Section 4.3 above, in the section pertaining to value lags). Ingrid Brudvig (South Africa) from the Web Foundation points out that perceived relevance is a significant barrier that is also linked to women’s time restraints, particularly in respect of (unpaid) care activities.[43] She argues:

¶ 168Leave a comment on paragraph 1680… the decision to spend time online presents a real opportunity cost, and is therefore directly affected by the value people see in Internet services and applications.

¶ 169Leave a comment on paragraph 1690
Survey respondents confirm that many women do not perceive the Internet to be relevant or useful to them. As Katambi Joan (Uganda) notes, ‘women in Africa, especially Uganda and in rural areas, need a lot of sensitization about the benefits of internet and how it can enhance development.’ Other respondents also note that particularly women in rural areas (Louise Marie Hurel, Brazil) and/or in the informal sector (Júlia Ribeiro, Brazil) do not know how connectivity can benefit them. As Madhvi Gokool (Mauritius) points out,

6. INITIATIVES AIMED AT OVERCOMING BARRIERS

¶ 173Leave a comment on paragraph 1730
The African Technology Foundation’s technology bootcamps conduct series of technology bootcamps for women at the University of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. Implemented in partnership with the College of Information and Communication Technologies (CoICT) at the University of Dar Es Salaam, Buni Divas, and HelptoHelp, the bootcamp was designed give female students studying at higher education institutes in Tanzania computer skills trainings and an introduction to online learning tools to meet the needs of universities as well as future employers; to train young Tanzanian women to help teach basic computer skills to fellow students, as well as in their home and business communities, with a focus on expanding into rural communities; and to encourage employers in Tanzania to increase their hiring quota for skilled women, and to design roles based on realistic workplace challenges.

¶ 179Leave a comment on paragraph 1790Alerta Machitroll (2015) is a campaign led by Fundación Karisma to detect phrases that appear to be ‘anti-women’ by self-proclaimed macho defenders identifiable as trolls, labelled as machitrolls (macho+troll). They have classified machitrolling into different categories: Rescatable, Incurable. This initiative seeks to tackle violence against women online by articulating the idea of macho and trolling with humour as a way of communicating and promoting awareness. Fundación Karisma was founded in 2003 (Bogotá, Colombia) and most of its work focuses on freedom of expression, gender and social equality.

¶ 185Leave a comment on paragraph 1850
The Alliance against Women Trafficking and Violence Against Women was launched in 2012 in Nepal with the aim of raising awareness about women trafficking and technology-based violence against women; to provide legal aid to women in need; to create a platform to share and receive relevant information; and to conduct research.

¶ 191Leave a comment on paragraph 1910
ISOC’s fellowships for APRICOT, which is available in developing countries in Asia-Pacific and the Pacific, imposes a quota requiring at least 40% of its fellows to be women from least developed countries or small island developing states (SIDS) in Asia-Pacific. The fellowship aims to encourage the participation in, and to further build the capacity of women technical experts through, regional technical gatherings.

¶ 197Leave a comment on paragraph 1970Barco Hacker is a citizenship project focused on broadening access to technologies, the Internet and, therefore, information to the Brazilian Amazonian region. The initiative, which is not held by any public or private institution, intends to promote the exchange of information between professionals from different areas and riverside communities located in areas of difficult access. Despite not having women as its exclusive target audience, the project is led by a woman entrepreneur in technology who has been a role model for many women and girls in the region.

¶ 203Leave a comment on paragraph 2030
The Boston Safety Hub Collective’s A DIY Guide to Feminist Cybersecurity also provides an introduction to available cybersecurity tools, and manages a hashtag on Twitter (#SafeHubTech) to which users can also tweet cybersecurity questions and concerns.

¶ 209Leave a comment on paragraph 2090Byte Girl is an annual conference promoted in the city of Fortaleza, in the northeast region of Brazil, which is focused on bringing women from across the country to talk about gender and technology. The event is particularly focused on empowerment through gender-sensitive knowledge diffusion and capacity-building and empowerment of women through several workshops.

¶ 215Leave a comment on paragraph 2150
The Chuuk Women’s Council is an umbrella organisation in the Chuuk state that has set up a computer learning lab for women in the island nation. The initiative is supported by ISOC through its Chapters and its Community Grants programme.

¶ 221Leave a comment on paragraph 2210
Costa Rica’s Connected Homes Program helps to improve adoption by, among other things, providing a subsidy not only to those who from low-income backgrounds, but also for those households that are headed by women as they are recognised as disadvantaged. It therefore specifically targets female-headed households.

¶ 227Leave a comment on paragraph 2270
The Digital Citizen Fund, formally known as the “Women’s Annex Foundation,” was founded in New York City and helps girls and women in developing countries gain access to technology, virtually connect with others across the world, and obtain necessary skills to succeed in today’s expanding global market. To accomplish this, the Digital Citizen Fund has built eleven Internet Training Centers and two stand-alone media centers in partnership with MTI (presently known as Bitlanders) and the Afghan Citadel. Through this collaboration, we have successfully connected over 55,000 young women in Kabul and Herat. We have recently expanded operations in Mexico as part of our effort to provide better opportunities for girls and women around the world. We are ready to scale our highly successful model to other countries as funding becomes available.

¶ 233Leave a comment on paragraph 2330
The Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF), with support from Google, is helping and providing training to rural women in India to gain Internet access, and to learn to use the Internet. The programme teaches basic computer skills, Internet skills, Internet on mobile, chat and e-mail etc. So far, DEF has enabled 100,000 women to gain Internet access. Challenges identified include having relevant accessible content; and if a woman tries to open any email account she normally needs a mobile number, which most women do not have access to or, where they do, it is shared with their male family members.

¶ 239Leave a comment on paragraph 2390DNS WOMEN is an international women’s movement aimed at encouraging women to enter and benefit from Internet businesses, enlarge network for this to happen. The initiative meets regularly at ICANN meetings, where members debate issues related to Internet business and invite all women from the region to attend and share their stories. The initiative is also starting chapters around the world to expand its activities and become more useful locally.

¶ 245Leave a comment on paragraph 2450Dove’s Self Esteem Project offers online safety advice that aims to supports mothers in helping their daughters learn how to use social media safely, and includes simple advice on staying safe online from experts. Although of potential global application, this initiative was designed by Dove in the UK.

¶ 251Leave a comment on paragraph 2510
The Endangered Languages Project, launched by Google and supported by various experts in the field of language preservation, uses technology to help organizations and individuals in confronting language endangerment by documenting, preserving and teaching languages. Through an interactive website, users can access information on these languages and use samples, but also play an active role in digitizing their language by submitting information or samples in the form of text, audio or video files. Users can also share best practices and case studies through a knowledge-sharing section.

¶ 257Leave a comment on paragraph 2570End Online Misogyny has created accounts on various social media platforms (including Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Tumblr) with the aim of highlighting and eradicating online misogyny and abuse by sharing real examples of misogynistic abuse from different users.

¶ 263Leave a comment on paragraph 2630
The project ending Technology Assisted Violence Against Women (eTAVAW) is based in Kenya and supports a multi-sectoral approach (including health care workers, police, judiciary, women’s rights advocates, victim groups etc.) to dealing with the issue of technology-assisted violence against women. The initiative aims to equip various stakeholders with the capacity, tools and skills, as well as an enabling policy environment to combat online abuse and gender-based violence.

¶ 269Leave a comment on paragraph 2690Enredadas: Tecnología para la Igualdad is a feminist initiative in Managua, Nicaragua. The initiative’s objective is for more women to use the Internet as an everyday tool by talking and reflecting on security, privacy, governance, women´s history, and technical skills related to ICT with a gender-based approach.

¶ 275Leave a comment on paragraph 2750Feminist Approach to Technology (FAT) is a not‐for‐profit organization primarily operational in Delhi that believes in empowering women by enabling them to access, use and create technology through a feminist rights‐based framework. FAT empowers women by enhancing women’s awareness, interest, and participation in technology.

¶ 281Leave a comment on paragraph 2810
The GEM-TECH Awards are organized anually by ITU and UN Women to celebrate personal or organizational achievements to advance gender equality and mainstreaming in the area of ICTs. The GEM-TECH Awards provide a platform for advancing women’s meaningful engagement with ICTs and their role as decision-makers and producers in the technology sector. This year’s GEM-TECH Awards will be held at the Forum of Telecom World 2016 in Bangkok, Thailand, from 14-17 November.

¶ 287Leave a comment on paragraph 2870Ghana Women in IT’s Social Media Platform for Women in SMEs is based in Ghana and helps to create awareness and educate women on how to use social media platforms to market their products (including hair, clothing and shoes, beauticians, designers, food stuffs, etc.); to provide services to customers; and to interact with customers and build social networks with others.

¶ 293Leave a comment on paragraph 2930Girl Effect targets girls in Ethiopia, Rwanda and Nigeria (and beyond) to address gender inequalities and related cultural stereotypes and gender norms by helping to build girls’ confidence. The initiative makes use of peer-to-peer mobile research technologies that help to gain a better understanding of girls’ realities and barriers, and also provide them with interactive technology and real-world safe spaces to connect them to networks and knowledge that can empower them.

¶ 299Leave a comment on paragraph 2990
The UK-based Girlguiding offers information for girls on how to use the Internet safely, including resources on taking selfies and using webcams safely; dealing with cyberbullying and spam; when and how to share photos and videos safely online; and how to use social media properly, among other things.

¶ 305Leave a comment on paragraph 3050iLab Liberia links female students with ICT companies’ mentorship programmes and holds ICT career fairs for young women in Liberia. This programme is supported by ISOC through its Chapters and its Community Grants programme.

¶ 310Leave a comment on paragraph 3100
In the East Java province of Indonesia, a telecentre called Improving Rural Connectivity For Sustainable Livelihoods Project is designed as a place for the rural population, especially women, to access information, communicate and obtain information, social services, and economic fields. It is also a community center to hold trainings and to enable capacity-building.

¶ 316Leave a comment on paragraph 3160
The Infolady initiative was launched by the non-profit initiative D.net in Bangladesh in 2008. It trains women, who have to take out a loan of approximately $650 to start their business, for three months on how to use the hardware. Thereafter, these ‘info ladies’ crisscross the countryside, dressed in blue and pink uniforms and carrying in their bags a laptop, a camera to make films or take wedding snaps, but also tests for blood sugar and pregnancy, and of course some cosmetics and shampoo. Thanks to their PC connected to the ‘new world’ via a USB stick, these women can call up information beyond the reach of village schoolteachers; can advise farmers and sometimes even offer legal advice. Information needs these ‘ladies’ to reach its destination, because ‘browsing the net is like flying a rocket to land on another planet’, Sathi says. ‘It scares lots of people.’

¶ 322Leave a comment on paragraph 3220
The Jhuwani Community Library promotes the use of a local mobile app to enable pregnant women to regularly access prenatal care in Nepal. The initiative is supported by ISOC through its Chapters and its Community Grants programme.

¶ 328Leave a comment on paragraph 3280Learn my Way is a UK-based collaboration of civil society and business that provides resources to enable users to use various enabled devices. To support the protection of users online, a basic online course covers email safety, making credit card payments on the Internet for online shopping, child safety and how to keep personal data safe online.

¶ 334Leave a comment on paragraph 3340
The Human Welfare Association (HWA) is a Varanasi-based non-profit organisation. In 2011, it launched the Mahila Shakti: A Tool for Women Empowerment with Education Initiatives project, which aims to use digital technologies to improve the quality of living of women from marginalised communities around the city of Varanasi. The project started by providing women from economically disadvantaged families basic education and literacy. This is combined with digital literacy skills, including the use of mobile phones, by using the simple features of mobile phone such as keypads to educate women and improve their literacy skills. The use of mobile phones increases women’s literacy and numeracy skills and allows them to share experiences with others regarding information on government schemes and other day-to-day issues. These improvements also boost women’s confidence and allow them to be more involved in decision-making in their social economic and political realms. With the support of existing mobile application, women can learn and develop the quality of crunching numbers, mathematics skills and various other subjects. The initiative aims to evaluate and analyse a user’s present situation and strengths and determines a feasible and appropriate alternative. The process allows them to plan, implement, monitor and evaluate developmental programme and communicate with both NGOs and the government.

¶ 340Leave a comment on paragraph 3400MariaLab Hackerspace (Brazil) emerged as a way of promoting hackerspaces focused in women as well as sensitive to topics and challenges shared by most women in the STEM sector. It aims to create safe spaces, promote dialogue, events and, most importantly, diversity.

¶ 345Leave a comment on paragraph 3450Minas Programam (Brazil) sees programming as a way for women to engage with their ideas and with other women; thus playing an important role in digital inclusion as well as content creation. Deconstructing the idea that men are more capable and/or prone to programming is combatted through the creation of a space for women to get in touch with coding.

¶ 351Leave a comment on paragraph 3510Mujeres Construyendo is a community formed exclusively by women from the Latin America and Spanish speaking countries. Founded in 2009, the aim of the community is to use the Internet as a platform to promote the voices, leadership, empowerment and participation of women. All the content within Mujeres Construyendo is written by female content generators who write about the most varied range of topics, from lovers of politics to motherhood dedicated blogs. The community contains over 30 thousand people from Latin America and the Spanish spoken countries.

¶ 357Leave a comment on paragraph 3570
The Pakistan Social Association has trained hundreds of young girls from rural Pakistan in digital literacy with the goal of encouraging them to pursue careers in ICT. The initiative is supported by ISOC through its Chapters and its Community Grants programme.

¶ 363Leave a comment on paragraph 3630Peng! is a collective that specialises in so-called ‘subversive direct action, culture jamming, civil disobedience and guerrilla communications’ launched its Zero Trollerance campaign in March 2015. The campaign used Twitter profiles controlled by computer programs (or bots) to target suspected trolls and to troll them back with the aim of educating these alleged trolls. 5000 suspected trolls were identified with ‘simple language analysis’ of Twitter data tweeting ‘the type of dangerous language often used to harass and incite violence against women and trans people’. While the campaign is controversial for using similar tactics as the trolls it targets, it raises interesting questions on counter-strategies that are responsive to context and the potential limits of such strategies.

¶ 369Leave a comment on paragraph 3690PoliGen is a gender studies group formed in Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo, Brazil. The group, composed by undergraduate and graduate students, teachers and non-teaching staff of the University, aims to constitute and promote itself as a permanent space of discussion to research the actions that could be adopted in order to reduce gender inequalities and the gender digital divide. Most of the group members have some relation to the areas of so-called ‘hard sciences’, but there is no restriction on participation because it is understood that diversity stimulates equity and innovation. The group, which includes men and women, also promotes workshops about subjects related to the Internet, such as security and privacy on the Internet and digital literacy workshops focused on women, through activities that go beyond the University walls.

¶ 375Leave a comment on paragraph 3750PrograMaria (Brazil) started as a group seeking to promote greater education on programming. Women from different backgrounds and disciplines gathered together and realised that there were other challenges other than access to programming, including the need for empowerment as creators and makers. PrograMaria is a “meta-site” about women and tech; empowering women and helping them believe in their ideas as well as make them happen is what PrograMaria is about.

¶ 381Leave a comment on paragraph 3810Project Sampark was launched by telecommunications company Uninor in India and is aimed at increasing the number of women Internet users by introducing schemes like the “Jodi” pack, which is a set of two SIM cards, where one SIM card goes to the male member of the family and the other to the female member. A grant of $70,000 was provided by the GSMA’s Connected Women programme to support the initiative.

¶ 387Leave a comment on paragraph 3870Projeto Cyberela de Inclusão Digital de Mulheres, Project Cybershe for digital inclusion of women, is promoted by a Brazilian NGO from Rio de Janeiro, Cemina. The initiative promotes workshops for girls throughout Brazil. The subjects of the workshops can vary from classes about women scientists and training in robotics to web series productions about black women and their role in the history of sciences. The initiative opened a call for funding, and ten projects have been selected from several states of the country.

¶ 393Leave a comment on paragraph 3930
The Ranking Digital Rights project was developed in recognition of the importance of Internet and telecommunication companies’ responsibility to respect human rights online. While the project does not have a specific indicator targeted at measuring how companies deal with online abuse and gender-based violence, its 31 indicators are targeted at measuring how certain companies protect and uphold rights to privacy and freedom of expression, including how transparent and thorough they are in their reporting of content removal practices. In 2017, 22 companies will be ranked by a team of 28 researchers.

¶ 399Leave a comment on paragraph 3990Red Rickshaw Revolution is a Vodafone Foundation initiative that first started in 2013 as an auto-rickshaw journey from Delhi to Mumbai to celebrate the achievements of 50 inspirational women and to raise funds for three NGOs working towards women empowerment. The stories of female achievers found during this journey were compiled into a book titled Red Rickshaw Revolution. The project now stands completed as of December 31, 2016.

¶ 405Leave a comment on paragraph 4050Reprograma is an initiative that promotes the empowerment and education of women through short-term courses focused on teaching women notions of computing and professional training tools. The six-week courses offered by Reprograma offers capacity building in front-end programming, basic knowledge of entrepreneurship, professional support and mentorships given by references in the industry. By preparing women to become programmers, the initiative aims to aim to reduce the gap between demand and supply in the Brazilian technology sector and also to broaden the insertion of women in this sector.

¶ 411Leave a comment on paragraph 4110Rural-Girls-in-Tech was launched in 2016 in Kenya’s Nyandarua County with the aim of empowering rural women and girls to take up ICTs for development and mentoring school girls to take up STEM. The initiative also undertakes advocacy on fast, affordable, secure and transparent Internet access.

¶ 417Leave a comment on paragraph 4170Security-in-a-box, which was created in 2009 by Tactical Tech and Front Line, aims to assist human rights defenders with their digital security and privacy needs by providing them with a collection of hands-on guides.

¶ 423Leave a comment on paragraph 4230ShineTheLight was launched by ISOC in 2016 as a global campaign that features the profiles of women who are pushing the boundaries in their respective fields; using technology.

¶ 429Leave a comment on paragraph 4290Smart Woman™ was launched by ChangeCorp and provides an online network of women in Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Kuwait, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar and the United States who receive important information about topics like health, education, and agriculture via their mobile phones. This initiative has enabled rural and less privileged women to access information to help them meet their socioeconomic needs (e.g., information about health, education, agriculture, etc.). Content is available in English, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic.

¶ 435Leave a comment on paragraph 4350Sursiendo is an initiative that aims to contribute to social change and the defense of the commons, through fair and creative participation, including a gender perspective, relying on popular education and communication by building spaces for reflection, study and analysis to produce emancipatory content that encourage social intervention.

¶ 441Leave a comment on paragraph 4410Take Back the Tech! is a collaborative APC campaign aimed at reclaiming ICTs to end violence against women, and calls on all ICT users – especially women and girls – to take control of technology and strategically use any ICT platform at hand (mobile phones, instant messengers, blogs, websites, digital cameras, email, podcasts and more) for activism against gender-based violence. Take Back the Tech! plans several campaigns throughout the year, with the biggest being 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence.

¶ 446Leave a comment on paragraph 4460TechChix Tanzania is a women-operated non-profit organization based in Arusha, Tanzania. Comprising of professional women in various engineering and technology fields, the organization aims to increase empowerment and engagement with young women and girls interested in STEM by presenting STEM/career preparation workshops, organizing online training sessions, and locating internships for qualified female students. As an organization, they are directly dealing with the following barriers: capacity and skills, although there are plans to also help address the barrier to relevant content by developing local content in Swahili in the near future.

¶ 452Leave a comment on paragraph 4520Tech Needs Girls is mentorship programme organized by the Soronko Foundation in Accra, Ghana, and is aimed at getting more girls to create technology and pursue careers in technology by teaching coding skills. The initiative currently has 2065 girls enrolled in its programme, with 16 mentors who are either computer scientists or engineers. The initiative also works with girls from slum areas to help empower them ‘to go to university instead of being forced into early marriage’.

¶ 458Leave a comment on paragraph 4580Technology for Female in ICT Project (T4F) focuses on communities in Greater Accra and the Eastern regions of Ghana and seeks to empower and educate girls and women through mentoring and training targeted to various levels of education, including basic education, junior high and senior education levels, at certain schools and in communities.

¶ 464Leave a comment on paragraph 4640Trans.TI project was created along with TransENEM, a community prep course in Porto Alegre, Brazil, directed at the social inclusion of transgender women, men and non-binary people. By acknowledging the importance of digital inclusion of the transgender and non-binary population, and importance of social inclusion via inclusion in college and formal education in transgender women and men and non-binary people’s lives, the initiative aims to promote digital inclusion as it enables them to participate in interpersonal relations, but also to change their lives without having to rely on solving traditional educational gaps. Therefore, trans.TI works in two ways: i) through the capacitation of workforce by providing IT-related and English courses; and cii) by developing and building healthy and friendly workplace environments in IT companies by providing consultancies related to or targeted to this social group.

¶ 470Leave a comment on paragraph 4700
The WePROTECT initiative works with the Global Alliance Against Child Sexual Abuse Online to create a single movement with unprecedented reach: 70 countries are members of WePROTECT or the Global Alliance, along with major international organisations, 20 of the biggest names in the global technology industry, and 17 leading civil society organisations. All members of these two founding initiatives have been asked to join the WePROTECT Global Alliance. At its first meeting in March 2016, the WePROTECT Global Alliance Board agreed upon a vision to identify and safeguard more victims, apprehend more perpetrators, and end online child sexual exploitation.

¶ 476Leave a comment on paragraph 4760Wireless Women for Entrepreneurship and Empowerment is a part of DEF/ISOC’s Wireless for Communities Programme in India, and aims to create women’s micro-level social enterprises based on ICT, to develop women entrepreneurs supported by wireless Internet in for certain districts of India, and to contribute to an enabling Internet environment and Internet for gender inclusion and women empowerment.

¶ 482Leave a comment on paragraph 4820Women in STEM, or Elas nas Exatas, focuses on high school girls and public school students and aims to reduce the impact of gender inequalities regarding career choices and access to higher education for young women; also aiming to reduce the gap between them and the access to ICTs. The project selects 10 local Brazilian initiatives of young women from public schools and grants each of them 30 thousand reais in order to encourage girls to engage with the exact sciences and technology and to sensitise schools on the importance of such subjects for women.

¶ 488Leave a comment on paragraph 4880
Women and Mozilla Brazil, WoMoz, is a community of open web enthusiasts, focusing on women’s empowerment in technology. The initiative works with several projects to encourage and give greater visibility to the participation and contribution of women and minorities in both the Mozilla and the open-source contexts. In Brazil, the movement was initiated in October 2014 by a group of volunteers. Ever since, the group has participated and organized numerous training and activities focused on women’s inclusion, and was present in technology forums, in order to create a better environment for all and in particular giving voice to women and minorities. The project is open to everyone and offers capacity-building courses on programming, ruby on rails, robotics, software development and quality rating.

¶ 495Leave a comment on paragraph 4950
The World Wide Web Foundation’s Women’s Rights Online initiative aims to study and tackle gender digital divides by driving women’s empowerment through the Web. The organization makes use of research, policy advocacy and storytelling with the aim of helping to support the development of evidence-based national ICT and gender plans established in at least seven new countries within five years.

¶ 501Leave a comment on paragraph 5010
Microsoft’s YouthSpark programme gives young people the tools and training to express themselves through computer science, and consists of a variety initiatives aimed at achieving this purpose. YouthSpark also has camps, which enables children of all ages to learn to code and create games and applications. DigiGirlz, in turn, gives middle and high school girls opportunities to learn about careers in technology, to connect with Microsoft employees, and to participate in hands-on computer and technology workshops. Lastly, Microsoft also runs a patent programme aimed at supporting more female inventors in registering patents in order to address the lack of women who have patents in the USA (women hold only 7% of patents in the USA).

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The first sentence refers to 2010 research – worth mentioning the date of those findings to contextualize how they have changed over time. GSMA researched this issue again 5 years later and the updated findings on this topic are in the 2015 report mentioned.

For example, gender literacy gaps – including digital literacy – results in uneven capacity amongst women to use the Internet for their needs and capacities. – Here capacity used twice, seems one of them should be replaced with some other word.

I think it is important to include race or racial and ethnic original to the second sentence of this paragraph as a factor that influences women’s ability to gain access, especially in the Global South.

This may have already been addressed, and I apologize if I missed it. APC and several other organisations and groups discourage the use of the term “revenge pornography” due to it not always being associated with revenge and not being pornography (i.e., not consensual). Terms such as “non-consensual sharing of intimate images” and “blackmail” or “sexualised blackmail” are preferable. Since “sharing photographs of women without authorization” comes right after “revenge pornography,” would it be adequate to just cut out “revenge pornography” and add “and videos” after “sharing photographs”? Another option would be to write “so-called revenge pornography” with a footnote.

I understand that the expression “soft components” was taken from the Broadband Commission Report. I believe, however, it does not reflect what this paragraph wants to convey , which is the need for policies that also look at the issue from the perspective of the demand and use of broadband.

I suggest changing the expression ” meaningful”. It seems that the goal here is to show that speed and bandwidth quality are crucial to enable the benefits the documents talks about. The word “meaningful”, however, might lead to different interpretations – e.g. content related interpretations.

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I would think it appropriate to include here a more specific item on involvement of private sector, under the larger banner of responsible intermediaries/entities, that was mentioned in the framing section. Otherwise the recommendations oscillate predominantly between policy and technical communities.

Interesting idea and would like to read more, perhaps in the form of a specific best practice. Especially as it presents a tension with the assumed heterogeneity of multistakeholderism. While subject focus is important, it must also be balanced with the benefits of diverse views and experiences that influence outcomes.

I think Adam’s comment is well received. However, I’m not sure that it fits into the text here as it is rather specific. There are some more best practices that could be listed here, such as code audits or FLOSS development. Suffice to mention the importance of responsible intermediaries to put in place processes and mechanisms to facilitate coordination with and among those from all stakeholder groups with the knowledge and skill sets necessary to improve cybersecurity.

IXP business models vary depending on whether an IXP is for-profit or not-for-profit. In general, a for-profit IXP aims to be profitable and distributes this profit as a dividend, or equivalent payment, while not-for-profit IXPs exchange traffic without the intention of distributing profit, but with the intent to invest any surplus in the future development of the IXP.